The Paths of Lives
by Ano Crazy Adventurer
Summary: AU: Zoro and Kuina set off on a journey across land in becoming the greatest swordsman ever. Of course, every path must have obstacles. Everything is harder when you have a princess as a rival and a twin. Tashigi/Robin/Kuina x Zoro ch1- careful! Nami and Sanji, the thieves duo!


_"Here I come!" the blue-haired girl shrieked, dashing towards the raven. She swifted her wooden sword towards the man(mihawk) - who easily dodged her attack._

_She swifter her sword to the other side, still attempting to hit the man - who again, dodged it easily._

_The event continued on for a few minutes._

_Then, a green-haired ten years old boy sighed as the event went on for more than half an hour. Why's that old man not ending the match yet?_

_Finally, the girl stopped attacking and panted heavily out of exhaustion._

_Then, the wooden sword in the man's hand was finally swung and in a split of seconds, the man won._

_And that marked the 2000th time of defeat for the thirteen years old girl._

_"And that marked your 2000th defeat towards Mihawk-sensei," the boy, who was sitting quietly and boredly watched the match commented, much to the girl's dismay._

_"Shut up! I bet you'll lose in a shorter eriod of time compared to mine!" the girl replied with tick marks popping on her forehead._

_"Enough of the bickering, Kuina. Zoro. Now. I'd like to see you two duel," their teacher, by the name Mihawk ordered the two with a firm voice before walking to the place where the boy was sitting. He turned around and sat comfortably. His two students were already in their own respective positions, ready to duel. He eyed the two before nodding to himself._

_His serious face never left._

_"Start!" with that said, the two youngsters dashed towards each other. But it only lasted for a few seconds as the girl easily hit the boy right on the face - so hard - after dodging his attempts on hitting her. With that, their match ended._

_Zoro rubbed his awfully red face. "That hurts... Damnit!" he cursed under his breath, glaring at the ground._

_Kuina giggled happily. Her earlier grief for being defeated easily by Mihawk was overcome by her joy and happiness defeating her rival._

_"Don't be too happy! I'll defeat you one day! FOR SURE!" the boy exclaimed the sentence with full determination as always. This was the 1900th time that boy had said those words but, it never bored the girl._

_Kuina grinned mischievously at him._

_Zoro glared at her while muttering curses._

_The end of Mihawk's lips curved a bit up before chuckling at the duo._

_"You two make a perfect couple," he commented._

_"NO WE WON'T!" the duo shouted in reply with razor teeth._

_Their teacher burst into a fit of controlled laughter. The two continued to glare at him. The laughter was then joined by a new voice which the three recognized._

_"So, what's today's story, Mihawk?" asked the new voice. The called person immediately stopped laughing and turned his head a bit, to see a round-glassed man approaching him._

_"Koshiro. I think you should pair these two," the man with extraordinary eyes uttered while pointing towards the said duo._

_Koshiro sat beside him and looked at the two who was glaring at each other, probably because the two started a silent bicker while the two sensei talked to each other._

_"I believe you're right," the black-haired man replied._

_"SENSEI!" the two shouted with the same razor teeth at the two who were chuckling maturely._

_"Hororororo! I agree with sensei! Anyways! Everyone! Enjoy my cookies and tea!" shrieked a new voice._

_Zoro and Kuina's angry face were quickly replaced with a joyful one. The two young swordplayers dashed towards the pinkette._

_Koshiro smiled watching the trio bicker childishly over the food. Mihawk did the same, just that his smile was smaller._

* * *

_"You know, Zoro... I'm so grateful having you as my rival," Zoro blinked dumbfoundedly at the girl._

_"What do you mean?"_

_Kuina smiled wider, showing her beautiful white teeth._

_"You convinced me that girls can be as great as boys; and that I can possibly defeat Mihawk-sensei someday," the girl continued._

_Zoro blinked again, not capturing what the elder meant._

_Kuina sighed before patting Zoro's head._

_"Thank you."_

_She smiled so warm that red lines appeared on Zoro's cheeks. The boy smiled back in reply._

_"Whatever you're thanking me for, your welcome!" he replied, cheerfully._

_The two continued their duel in the grassy match-field. Their teachers were out to run some errands, leaving the two to show their juniors a duel._

_Everytime Kuina won, every of the female students would cheer for her. Meanwhile the male stuents would cheer for Zoro._

_To Zoro, everytime he lost to that girl, it was a new way to discover new techniques._

_He smirked before wiping his red nose and grabbed his wooden sword before dashing towards the girl again._

_"Prepare to lose, Zoro!" Kuina grinned mischievously as the boy dashed towards her with some kind of shouts._

* * *

The two grown-ups faced each other with a serious expression plastered onto their face.

"You sure you two are gonna be okay? Kuina?" asked the worried father, master of the dojo.

Mihawk had left to travel five years ago, leaving him to take care of the dojo himself. Their best discciples, Zoro and Kuina finally decided to embark on their own adventure. Meet more people and challenge great swordsmen in their journey.

All the way to the top.

The greatest swordsman - where his teaching partner, Mihawk is currectly at.

"Sure, father! Why wouldn't I? I'll make it eventhough I'm a woman! Besdies, we've talked about this before, right?" the blue-haired woman placed her hands on her waist, assuring her father that it was all gonna be alright.

"I'm not worry about gender issues, Kuina," another voice uttered. It belonged to the pinkette. The three turned to look at the woman.

"Then?" Kuina huffed while folding her arms.

Zoro stayed silent, bored.

"We're worried cause you two never got along for more than five - I mean, one minute," added the fairly old dojo master.

The two young adults blinked before glancing at each other.

Then, they huffed to the other side.

"See?" he continued.

Zoro sighed frustratedly. "Sensei... We won't stab each other, that's for sure. So don't worry," he said with a super small smile that convinced the other elder. "Perona. Koshiro-sensei. Take care." With that, he bowed ninety degrees and turned to hit the road.

Kuina blinked at his back before realization hits her. She bowed to the two like the younger did and smiled warmly at her father.

As the the two were no longer visible, the two elder sighed.

"I'll be making lunch for the students now, sensei. Excuse me," the gothic dresser bowed to the swordsman before leaving for the said errands.

Koshiro smiled warmly at the place where the two were standing at.

"There's no safe place in this world. So, stay alive, you two," he uttered, with his eyes moving towards the blossoming sakura trees.

* * *

As expected, the two bickered all the way to the next town. It took them about three hours but, each being passionate of each other's arguement, they didn't realize the time ticking.

"Well, well... Lookie who's here... ," uttered a sarcastic feminine voice.

The duo stopped their steps and their bickering and eyed around them. It was an empty town. No one was around, no cackles of laughter from the children can be heard and no stores nor bars were opened.

"Who's that?" hissed Kuina while grabbing onto her sword. Zoro, as calm as ever, still rested his hands on his tree swords.

But he never left off his guard.

Then the two turned to look at the same direction, after listening some footsteps of a pair of high-heeled shoeswalking towards them.

From the dark alley, a woman with shoulder-length orange hair was revealed. She had an elegeant style of walking and a cunning-type of smile.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm the infamous Cat Burglar, Nami," the woman introduced herself, holding still a blue pole thingie.

Kuina eyed the weapon in the other woman's hand.

"Ah... Nice to meet you, woman. Now, excuse us. We're leaving," coolly, the green-haired swordsman continued on walking and dragged along his sister-like figure, who was quite pissed with the grab on the collar of her white shirt.

The woman, namely Nami, glared at the two, before hitting the ground with her bo-staff.

Zoro, aware of that signal given off by the woman to a partner cocntinued on walking, gripping on one of his swords.

"It's rude to leave a lady like that, you shitty marimo," snarled a new voice. But this time, it was manly.

Kuina had to admit, there was charm in his voice but like hell she'd say that out loud.

A black-suited slender tall man walked out of another alley, puffing smoke out of his mouth.

Zoro twitched his eyebrow by the mention of marimo.

He quickly scanned the blond from bottom to top. And, visibly, that man had smirly eyebrow. He had his hair covering almost half of his face - showing only the right side of his face.

"Oh. What's that to you, dartbrow?"

The smoking man twitched at the comment.

"Why you... I'm a lady's man. They call me Black Leg. I'm known by woman all over the country as Mr. Prince. My name is Sanji and not dartbrow, thank you very much," Sanji replied while tapping his shoe to the ground. He glared steadily at that man whom had released the grip he had on the beautiful lady's collar.

Zoro sighed annoyed-ly as Nami and Sanji were both in front and behind them. The two were surrounded.

"What do you two want?" he asked, lowering the tensity level between them four.

Nami smirked happily. Sanji placed his hands in his pocket and stood straightly.

"Money. That's all," Nami replied happily while resting her hands on her waist. She grinned at the two.

Kuina looked at Zoro, hesitantly.

"Just give them. We're out for our own goals, we can just earn moneey, later on," the man replied with his cool face.

Kuina frowned before sighing.

"Geez... You're as reckless as always, Zo-" Nami, Sanji and Zoro each shared a confused look as the girl facepalmed.

She then laughed nervously.

"I forgot the money bag back at the dojo," she stuck her tongue out while saying this, trying to loosen the tense surrounding them.

Zoro facepalmed too, while the thieves sweatdropped.

"You what!?" he shrieked while gritting his teeth in disbelief and shock.

Kuina laughed again, nervously.

"Well... Those swords you two have can do it. They look expensive..."

The two's muscle tensed and gripped tighter to each other's swords. Zoro faced the man, ready to fight him while Kuina, unsheathed her sword, ready to take down the woman.

* * *

**A/N: Finally! This is an AU, for your information... And,... more to be revealed in the next chapter!**

**Might be ZoRo with TaZoKui.**

**Many more characters will show up later and I hope you enjoyed reading this one! It was kinda hard writing this y'know... Review or not, see ya! ;D!**

**I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE. ALL RIGHTS DESERVED TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS. THANK YOU VERY MUCH.**


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